One Step Closer

Just a week before Section III titles get decided, the CNY Counties League and OHSL teams went through one more tune-up at Monday night's George Constantino Memorial Invitational.

And after ceding the top spot to Cicero-North Syracuse in the Arcaro meet five days earlier, Liverpool's girls took it back, gaining 74 points while the Northstars got pushed back to third place (47 points) behind Fayetteville-Manlius. Skaneateles earned small-school honors with 23 points.

Liverpool got points in all but two events, sweeping the sprints with Wanetta Rodney (55-meter dash), Janeeka Benson (55-meter hurdles) plus a winning 4x100 relay squad. Add to it a 1-2 in the pole vault from Sara Rothenberg and Emily Chen, a second from Jenn Culp in the shot put and solid distance running from Trina Bills and Brigid Heenan, and the Warriors had plenty of winning room.

And all of it was needed, since F-M was up to its usual tricks of trying to sweep any race where distance was involved. That plan got thwarted twice, though, when CBA's Melissa Zajdel took the 600-meter run and CNS's McKaye Neumeister stepped in front in the 1,000, though Molly Malone and Hannah Luber went 1-2 in the 1,500, the longest race of the night.

Without Monique Roberts around, CNS suffered in points in a big way. Still, Neumeister won and Gina Campagna (5 feet 2 inches) prevailed in the high jump as Baldwinsville's Brittany Ewald (long jump) and Henninger's Shante White (shot put) also won on the individual side.

This happened even though the wins were spread out. Andy Kahl cleared 6 feet 8 inches and led Devin Mertens in a 1-2 sweep of the high jump, while Ty Howington again took the 55 hurdles and Craig Barber (12 feet) beat the field in the pole vault.

Elsewhere, CNS just accumulated points, finishing second in both relay events and getting a runner-up finish from Nathan MacNabb in the mile behind F-M's Alex Hatz - not to mention the third and fourth-place efforts that count big.

Both Hatz and Jamal Johnson (55-meter dash) gave F-M dual titles. Solvay's Greg Manning won the 600 on his own (holding off Central Square's James Thurn) and helped the 4x400 Bearcats prevail, too, producing a third-place overall finish with 36 points, just four behind Henninger and tops among small schools.

Other stars won, too, from Auburn's Matt Wild in the long jump to Marcellus junior Craig Stogsdill in the 1,000. As for Henninger, Marcquis Barnes dominated the shot put, tossing it 55 feet ¾ inch, and the 4x200 relay quartet of Greg Spears, Demetrius Barnes, Shaquille Leggett and Andre Britton found a time of 1:34.06, beating the field by more than a second.

Despite the close proximity to the sectional meet, few of the stars opted to rest. They all wanted to get the right kind of measuring stick before the next time at Manley, where the stakes go up.